Contents

The origin of the name is not exactly known. It already had this name in the Old South Arabian period: Ḥaḑramauticḥḑrmt; Sabaean and Qatabānian also had the form: ḥḑrmwt. The name appears in Greek as Άδρραμύτα.[1] There are various folk etymologies. One is that the region is named after a nickname of 'Amar ibn Qaḥṭān, meaning "death has come", from /ḥaḍara/ (Arabic for "has come") and /mawt/ ("death"), the reason being that whenever he entered a battle, there were always many people who died.[citation needed] Another theory is that after the destruction of Thamūd, the Islamic prophetṢāliḥ relocated himself and about 4,000 of his followers to the area known as Haḑramawt and it was here where he died and thus, the region was called "death has come".

Another folk etymology is that it is related to Hazarmawet in Genesis 10:26[2] and 1 Chronicles 1:20[3] in the Bible (meaning "court of death", according to various Bible dictionaries). There, Hazarmawet is the name of a son of Joktan, one of the sons of Shem in the table of the Sons of Noah[4] in Genesis 10—i.e., the founders of nearby nations including Sheba, also a son of Joktan. As Southern Arabia was and is one of the homelands of the South Semitic language subfamily, a Semitic origin for the name is highly likely. If the name did reflect a biblical- or pre-biblical-era naming convention in the Near East, this would make it ancient indeed, pre-dating both Islam and Greco-Roman civilization.

The name most likely derives from the Greekὕδρευματα, or enclosed (and often fortified) watering stations at wadis. A hydreuma (singular) is a manned and fortified watering hole or way station along a caravan route. Juris Zarins, rediscoverer of the city claimed to be the ancient Incense Route trade capital Ubar in Oman, described that site in a Nova interview:[5]

The site that we uncovered at Shisur was a kind of fortress/administration center set up to protect the water supply from raiding Bedouin tribes. Surrounding the site, as far as six miles away, were smaller villages, which served as small-scale encampments for the caravans. An interesting parallel to this are the fortified water holes in the Eastern Desert of Egypt from Roman times. There, they were called hydreumata.

In a wider sense, Hadhramaut includes the territory of Mahra to the east all the way to the contemporary border with Oman.[6] This encompasses the current governorates of Hadramaut and Mahra in their entirety as well as parts of the Shabwah Governorate.

The Hadhramis live in densely built towns centered on traditional watering stations along the wadis. Hadhramis harvest crops of wheat and millet, tend date palm and coconut groves, and grow some coffee. On the plateau, Bedouins tend sheep and goats. Society is still highly tribal, with the old Seyyidaristocracy, descended from the Islamic prophet, Muhammad[citation needed], traditionally educated and strict in their Islamic observance and highly respected in religious and secular affairs[citation needed]

The Qu'aiti dynasty was founded by 'Umar bin Awadh al-Qu’aiti, a Yafa’i tribesman whose wealth and influence as hereditary Jemadar of the Nizam of Hyderabad's armed forces enabled him to establish the Qu'aiti dynasty in the latter half of the 19th century, winning British recognition of his paramount status in the region, in 1882. The British Government and the traditional and scholarly sultan Ali bin Salah signed a treaty in 1937 appointing the British government as "advisors" in Hadhramaut. The British exiled him to Aden in 1945, but the Protectorate lasted until 1967.

In 1967, the former British Colony of Aden and the former Aden Protectorate including Hadramaut became an independent Communist state, the People's Republic of South Yemen, later the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. South Yemen was united with North Yemen in 1990 as the Republic of Yemen. See History of Yemen for recent history.

The capital and largest city of Hadhramaut is the port Al Mukalla. Al Mukalla had a 1994 population of 122,400 and a 2003 population of 174,700, while the port city of Ash Shihr has grown from 48,600 to 69,400 in the same time. One of the more historically important cities in the region is Tarim. An important locus of Islamic learning, it is estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad anywhere in the world.[16]

Historically, Hadhramaut was known for being a major producer of frankincense. They were mainly exporting it to Mumbai in the early 20th century.[17] The region has also produced senna and coconut.[18]